ForKids Food Packing @ Food Bank
Tuesday, December 5, 4:00 pm
In Person
Kudos to the eight people who enjoyed bagging lunches at the Thurston County Food Bank in Tumwater on the first Tuesday of November, November 7. The eight included Bernie, Emily, Tikva, Ricki, Michael, Paige and Brad. We were there for two hours. Even if volunteers can only remain for an hour and need to arrive late, that is okay but we will try to start right at 4. We expect that on December 5 when we next will be bagging at the Tumwater Branch of the Thurston County Food Bank, that we will have additional help. We also are looking forward to new volunteers. We also like children. It is not too late to sign up as we bag groceries on the first Tuesday of the Month at 4 p.m.
Bernie Friedman will be taking over for the months of December, January and February, and if you have any concerns or questions, you should direct those to Bernie, whose phone number is 360 528 7447 and his email address is Bernief@comcaast.net. Bernie, Beth Dubey and Edie Bean are the most experienced volunteers as they have been with this program since the beginning. We would welcome additional volunteers in the future as well, as if we have 10-12 people present, it speeds up the process.
The following are the current statistics of people being helped by the Thurston County Food Bank overall this calendar year: 1,522 children served weekly by ForKids, 62,000 individuals served by the Food Bank, 1.8 million pounds of food rescued via grocery rescue, 2,315 volunteers, 47,000 hours of donated time, valued at more than $750,000, and 5.5 million pounds of food distributed. 42% of the Thurston County Food Bank clients are children and 21% of the clients are seniors. 5.5 million pounds of food have thus far been distributed.
TBH was the first faith community to volunteer to pack bags for the ForKids program when it began in 2007 in the cold environs of the downtown branch of the Thurston County Food Bank. The addition of Anna-Min has improved the food that that we bag and which is being delivered weekly to elementary schools in the three school districts of North Thurston, Tumwater, and Olympia, and each week since the beginning of September there have been more and more bags needed to be filled as the need has increased.
For more information, please feel free to contact either Bernie Friedman at bernief25@comcast.net or Elie Halpern at ehalpern7379@gmail.com.